Any business that uses paper tickets for redemption of products or services has a need to use electronic tickets to streamline the verification and redemption process before allowing customers access to the respective product or service. Businesses such as movie theaters, amusement parks, and transportation services can distribute electronic tickets but the verification and redemption of electronic tickets by a human or machine can be error-prone and arduous.
One example of prior art, an electronic ticket is displayed with a barcode on a mobile device where the mobile device is scanned by a barcode scanner for verification purposes. The problem with this system is that the scanning process is often times met with error causing the need for manual verification of the ticket causing frustration for the ticket handler and customer. Barcode scanners were not designed to read electronic screens from mobile devices as the reflection from the screen will cause the scanner to fail intermittently.
In another example of prior art, an electronic ticket is distributed to a mobile device and when it comes time for verification with a ticket handler the mobile device must have Internet connectivity (online) to call a server for authentication purposes that will allow the mobile device to present a visual display that will facilitate visual verification with the ticket handler for redemption purposes. The problem with this system is the reliance at the crucial moment of electronic ticket verification and redemption of the customer's mobile device being able to communicate with the external server or the availability of the server to be called by the mobile device—mobile device Internet communication is not reliable at best.
Therefore, there is a need for an electronic ticketing system where the customer's mobile device will receive an electronic ticket and will only present a visual verifiable display of the ticket for verification purposes when the mobile device is within physical proximity of the respective place of business at the correct scheduled time window and without ever needing to communicate with any external server because all needed processing occurs within the mobile device itself at the time of verification and redemption (offline). Once the electronic ticket is visually verified, redemption of the electronic ticket can range from the mobile device moving out of proximity, the manual redemption by the human ticket taker or customer on the mobile phone via a physical gesture on the mobile device such as a simple swipe to a complex swipe pattern, or automated redemption by placing the mobile device within proximity of a secondary proximity device at the respective place of business. Overall, the customer mobile device does not need to communicate with any external servers during this process (offline) for a fluid, expedient, and pleasant experience for the customer, ticket handler, and place of business.